I Will Find You
by Zombie Calypso
Summary: Shepard is back from the dead and Garrus is missing. What else can she do but look for him? ME2 storyline with lots and lots of liberties taken on my part. Rated T for some f-bombs.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is the first time I've written anything like this. While playing through ME2, I realized that Shepard was all "Oh, Garrus is gone? Oh well!" and being the Garrus fangirl that I am, I was inspired to rectify that mistake.**

**That being said, I'm not really sure where this is going to end up. I like the beginning, though, so there will probably be more.**

*******

_**Commander Gabriella Shepard**_

A small part of me feels guilty for hacking the door to his apartment.

Every surviving member of the original _Normandy_ has been accounted for-- everyone, that is, except Garrus. Tali is back with the Flotilla, Liara is somewhere on Illium, and Kaiden never left the military. True, I don't know _exactly_ where Kaiden is, thanks to the Alliance and their bullshit classified information, but I know he's alive at least and that's good enough for me.

_Good enough, huh? You actually have (had?) a __**relationship**__ with Kaiden, yet here you are, running after another man. Classy._ The devil on my shoulder has been working overtime lately.

No one, and I mean _no one_, knows what has happened to Garrus. And no one really seems to care, either. This whole fucking situation makes my blood boil., so I decide to do the only logical thing and find him myself. If that involves a little breaking-and-entering, well I just hope he forgives me later.

_If there is a later…_

The door slides open with a barely audible _whoosh_ and I stand blinking in the brightness. The only indication that the living room has been unused for the past two years is the thick coating of dust that covers every surface. There's a couch, a table, a small vid screen, and a few photos on the wall. I stand with my back to the door, unsure of what to do. After a few moments of indecision, I decide that the best course of action would be to make a quick check of all of the rooms before I go any farther. I'm not sure what I'm hoping to find, but I do know what I'm afraid of seeing.

_A Garrus shaped skeleton lying on a blue stain._

I shake my head as if to physically rid myself of these morbid worries. Until I realized that he was missing, I didn't even admit to myself how much I cared for Garrus. He was a friend and a trusted ally on the field. He never second guessed my judgments, but always offered honest opinions. I can't imagine taking on the Collectors without him. _You're giving yourself too much credit, Gabby. You're assuming that Garrus would commit suicide over __**you**__. You're assuming he has any feelings for you whatsoever._ _How very tragic and romantic. _

A quick check of the rest of the apartment reveals a tiny kitchen, a small bath, a bedroom, and a room that looks like it was used as an office. Every room is furnished, dusty, and devoid of corpses. I feel a little relieved, but not much.

I find myself back in the living room, looking at the photos on the wall. One picture that is slightly askew catches my attention. In it, a female turian is sitting with a very small child on her lap. I can tell that she is fiercely beautiful, even from my human standpoint. Her facial markings are unfamiliar to me, but besides that she looks remarkably like Garrus: same coloring, same intense blue eyes. _His mother?_ The boy in her arms is bare-faced and gangly, hugely grinning for the shot.

I'm suddenly struck by the realization that I know next to nothing about Garrus's personal life. I know the basic outline, thanks to access to his personnel files, but the details are beyond me. I know that he has two older sisters and a respected father. His mother died before he was even old enough to received his clan markings. Whenever we talked, he spoke of his time in the military, the crushing boredom of C-Sec, or the current mission. He never offered information about his family, friends, lovers, hopes, or dreams.

Amongst the other family photos, there was one picture from the original _Normandy_: Garrus leaning against the Mako, arms crossed and looking very pleased with himself. I was in the picture, too, sitting on some crates and laughing.

***

I walk toward the Mako with several data pads in hand, to check on the repair status and to find some peace and quiet so I can get these damned reports finished. That's what I tell myself, anyway. Truthfully, I'm trying to avoid Kaiden. Our innocent flirting has turned into something different, something much more intense and my feelings have caught me off guard. I need to do something, anything to take my mind off of my worries. Talking to Garrus usually does the trick.

As I approach the tank, I can see Garrus's feet sticking out from under the machine.

"Son of a varren fucking whore!" A wrench flies out from underneath the Mako, just barely missing my shins. Garrus slides out after it, still muttering under his breath. I don't think he's noticed me yet.

"You kiss your sisters with that mouth, Vakarian?"

He's startled by my voice, but recovers quickly. "Sorry, Commander. The repairs… let's just say that they're not going well." He's cradling his left hand awkwardly and I can see a smear of dark blue blood across his chest.

"You're bleeding." I should just change my name to Captain Obvious to avoid any confusion.

Garrus shrugs a little. "I managed to strip a bolt, bend a wrench and tear up my hand all in one go."

I dig around in my pocket and pull out a small "single serving" packet of medi-gel. Garrus looks surprised as I toss it over to him.

"Do you always carry medi-gel around?"

"You never know when someone is going to whip a wrench at you." I laugh. "Besides, I can't have the only person on this damned ship who can repair the Mako dying of a blood infection."

He hisses as he rubs the gel into his palm. When you're on the battlefield and adrenaline is running high, you don't even notice the sting of medi-gel. But using it to treat a minor injury? It would probably be more comfortable to cauterize the wound closed with a rusty soldering-iron. "Is that all I am to you, Shepard? An underpaid mechanic?"

"Not exactly." I take a few steps forward, closing the gap between us. Garrus backs up a half step and bumps into the Mako. I'm not quite touching him, but I'm damned close. I'm close enough that I can feel how warm he is and I can smell the antiseptic tang of the medi-gel. I swear I can actually feel the tension and confusion vibrating through his body.

"Sh- Shepard?" God, he's so cute when he's nervous.

I stand up on my tip-toes and lean in. "You're also a damn good shot. That's why I keep you around."

The tension breaks as I take a step back. "Goddamn, Garrus. You are _too easy!"_

"For the record, Shepard," he's still nervous- he's started to rub the back of his neck, "I only act like an idiot around you."

I continue to back up and sit on some crates that are stacked beside the Mako. "That's good to know. Remind me next time we're fighting the geth together."

We both laugh.

***

The comm on my omni-tool beeps, startling me out of my reverie.

"Yes, Joker?"

"Find anything yet, Commander? Miranda's starting to get… antsy."

I sigh. "Not yet, but I'm still looking. Tell Miranda that we will leave the Citadel when I decide it's time to go and not a moment sooner. If she doesn't like it, she can go fuck herself."

"Wow, um, okay. Joker out."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey, look! Another chapter! It's a bit… different from the first one. I've finally decided what I want to do with this story-- alternating points of view between Shepard and Garrus, contrasting their differing situations at the same point in time. Let's hope it works out.**

**Thanks to everyone that left a comment. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!**

_*******_

_**Archangel**_

As I make my way down the filthy streets of Omega, I wonder for the billionth or so time what the hell I'm doing here. I hate this shit hole. I hate everyone in this shit hole. Sure, I've become famous (or, rather, infamous) for defending the innocents on this shit hole, but is it all worth it?

_Archangel_. It's my name, my title, my job. A job that is going to kill me one day, probably soon.

Take, for instance, the latest intel I received from Sidonis. He came to me two days ago, claiming to have knowledge of the next big slave shipment. The information he gave me seems solid enough, but I distrust any intelligence that I haven't gathered personally. When I asked him who his informant was, he hedged. Told me that he promised the snitch anonymity. I hate to second guess one of my men, but there is something… off about this deal.

Which is way I'm heading to a meeting with Rahn, instead of finishing up the prep work for the mission. She may not be the most pleasant woman to deal with, but she always has good solid information on the slave shipments in and out of Omega. Rahn is the madam of one of the largest brothels on this damned hub and slave trafficking is bad for business, so she happily shares information with my crew. In exchange, we stop the trade-offs. I'm not thrilled to be working at her beck-and-call, but I have little room to negotiate.

I approach the side entrance to the brothel and I can see two krogan guarding the door. Rahn's security force aren't exactly the chatty types, so I've taken it upon myself to nickname them all. These lovely specimens are Fucking Huge and Enormous. Hey, I never said I came up with original names.

When I reach the door, Enormous sizes me up. "Rahn's been waiting for you," he rumbles. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's rude to keep a lady waiting?"

Fucking Huge deliberately steps in front of the door, blocking the entrance. I really don't have the patience to deal with this shit. I can feel my right hand slowly come to rest on the pistol on my hip, apparently of its own free will. It's probably not the smartest thing to threaten these two, but I'm really sick of being fucked with.

"Just give me a reason, Archangel." His face is about an inch from mine. His breath is rancid and I am being showered in spittle. "I will lick out your brains."

"Let me in. I don't have time for this pissing contest."

Our stare-down seems to last forever. We're finally interrupted by Enormous. "Come on, ladies. Rahn is waiting."

Enormous opens the door and leads me down the hall. He unceremoniously walks through an unmarked entrance and stands to the side. As I walk in, I see Rahn is sitting at her desk, looking rather bored. She is by far the ugliest damn woman I've ever laid eyes on: short, wide, bare-faced, and scarred. She's missing several teeth and part of her fringe has been broken off. Testament to a hard life, sure, but I still shudder every time I see her.

"Archangel. Sit. Have a drink with me." She gestures to a small chair directly across from her own. There's a glass full of amber liquid for me on the desk.

I sit down, but I will not touch that drink. "What can you tell me about the information I gave you?"

She takes a sip of her whisky. "It looks good. In forty eight hours there will be a shipment of underage girls arriving at warehouse 24-B. It's the biggest fucking shipment Omega has seen in years."

"Anything else?"

"You can expect at least a dozen Blue Suns foot soldiers and two lieutenants attending this party." She takes another sip. "But that's it for the details. Everyone's being very hush-hush about this deal. Where did you get your intel from? You know I hate double checking your sloppy work."

I shake my head. "One of my men came to me with it. He hasn't been very forthcoming with his source, though, and that has me worried."

"It's a dangerous line of work you're in. Maybe you should consider retiring."

"You would miss me too much." I grin at her, even though she doesn't laugh at my lame attempt at humor. "Thanks for the drink, Rahn. I'll see you around."

As I stand to leave, Rahn gestures at my chair again. "You should stay, we still have much to discuss."

I have no idea what she is talking about and frankly, I don't care. "We'll talk next time."

"That wasn't a request, Archangel. Trust me, you want to hear what I have to say."

I'll admit that my curiosity has been piqued, even though my internal alarms bells are blaring. I sit in my chair and lean back. Rahn waves off her two krogan guards. I don't turn around, but I can hear them stomp out of the room and the door slide shut. This is not good.

"Good choice. You'll like this story, it's about you." She finishes her whisky and studies the empty glass. "Over the years, I've seen far too many guys like you: young idealists who swoop into our sweet little hub thinking that they can change the world. At first, I thought you were the same as all the rest, just some nameless vigilante with a gun and a death wish. But you… you are different. So much skill. So much fury. Even so, those in the know gave you two weeks, tops, before you either burnt out or got killed. Believe me, the bookkeepers have made a fortune off of your continued survival."

"Bookies?"

"You know as well as I do that the great citizens of Omega will gamble on anything. One of the more popular games right now is betting on long you survive." She shrugs. "But that's beside the point. I've been intrigued by you ever since you showed up here. So, I did a little digging into your background. You're an interesting man."

"You're bluffing." Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. _Shit_.

"You really think that, Garrus?" My body stiffens at the mention of my name. "I'll give you the short version of what I know. You joined the military at fifteen and served for seven years, earning several medals for valor and winning every shooting competition you entered. After that, you applied to C-Sec, where your career seemed to dead end, until one day you inexplicably end up on the _Normandy_- a human ship- and managed to save the entire galaxy. You went back to C-Sec for a few months, abruptly quit, and spent a year bouncing around the Terminus Systems doing odd jobs. Then you ended up here slaughtering mercs by the dozens. You're a damn hero, Garrus! I don't know if the people of Omega should be flattered or insulted."

"I thought you were too classy to resort to blackmail." I'm trying to keep it cool, but I'm so enraged that my hands are shaking. "What do you want from me, Rahn?"

"You can think of this as my insurance plan. The way I see it, it's only a matter of time before you get bored with dicking around with mercs and turn your sights to other… unethical endeavors. So, I'm going to make a deal with you. The moment I feel threatened by you or any of your crew, I will give all of the information that I have to every low life gun-for-hire I can find. Sound fair?"

"Fair enough," I manage to croak. How the hell did I manage to fuck up this badly?

"Despite what you're obviously thinking right now, I don't want this conversation to get in the way of our mutually beneficial relationship. Tell you what, tonight you can have any one of my girls, free of charge. As a peace offering."

"No thank you." It takes every ounce of my self control to keep myself from jumping over the desk and beating Rahn's face into a bloody pulp.

"Are you sure? I've got a new girl that I think you'd really enjoy." Rahn is smiling with an unreadable expression in her eyes. "She's quite stunning. Smooth pale skin, dark brown hair, gray eyes. You could even call her Shepard, if you like."

That's it. I'm out of my chair with my pistol aimed at her face before she has a chance to blink. "Don't ever disrespect Shepard again. Do I make myself clear?"

Rahn chuckles, completely ignoring the gun. "I was wondering what made you tick. You vigilantes are all the same, hopeless romantics to the core. It's no surprise that you're willing to throw your life away for a woman. Touching, even if she is a dead human." Her eyes lock with mine and she drops all pretense of mirth. "I'm going to let this one indiscretion slide, Archangel. But if you threaten me again, I will bathe in your blood."

I don't notice the krogan moving on my left until it's too late.


End file.
